Hermana Wilson Meets Virginia!

Holy Moly, this has been the longest week of my life!! 

Virginia is beautiful, but the work is really difficult here. I'm now in Culpeper Virginia which is like almost as far North in my mission that I can go. I miss Mexico and my MTC district a lot! Although, the missionaries in this area have been great so far! My new companion's name is Emily Ahlstrom and she's from Seattle.  She's pretty fantastic!

I've learned something, though.  Having a companion is like having a built in best friend, but you know from the beginning that not too long down the road they're gonna be taken away from you and you have to start all over again! Es no bueno, but it's helping me to learn to rely more on the Lord than the people around me.  

The people of Virginia are WONDERFUL.  The ward here has like the nicest people ever here! They're fantastic,and I'm really excited to be hear for the next couple of months. (I'm pretty sure I'll be in this area until January, but I'm not positive.  I guess anything can happen,right?)

We have lots of investigators, but communicating with them has been hard.  The hispanics really like to hear the messages we share because they have a lot of love for God and for Christ, but not many of them are actually interested in making and keeping commitments so it makes the whole baptizing thing a little difficult. 

We have a couple of little kids that really want to get baptized, but they are 8 and 11 so we're really counting on their parents giving them permission! They're great! 

Spanish is so hard!! I think it's coming along better than I think it is, but I'm definitely struggling.  For the most part, I can understand what's going on in lessons and follow the conversation, but my companion hasn't really given me much of a chance to say much so I don't feel like my ability to speak in spanish is getting a ton better.  I don't think she does it intentionally,but I feel like she gets frustrated when I can't speak very quickly and not everything I say is in perfect Spanish.  Oh well, this was only week 1.  We've got lots of time to practice.

Funny story for the week: 

On Saturday we were out knocking on doors and we walked up to a family of Hispanics that were all outside together.  Before we even told them who we were or that we wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ with them, they pulled up chairs for us and handed us sodas and a plate full of food.  I don't think we'd even told them that we were missionaries or our names or anything! Hispanics seriously are the nicest people!! We sat there and had a solid gospel discussion with them (and by that I mean that Hermana Ahlstrom talked with them and I listened).  We were there for like an hour and a half and have a return appointment to visit with them again this week! Anyway, I guess I just never realized how friendly they were until now.  It just amazes me that they didn't even know who we were and they were handing us platefuls of food! haha good times :) 

This week has been really hard, but I know that it will get better! Being a missionary is difficult, but it's also way rewarding! 

Much love to everyone!! 

Love, 

Hermana Wilson

P.S. PLEASE WRITE ME!! I don't think I can even express how much I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get letters from people!! 

My address here is: 

310 I Duke St

Culpeper, VA 22701

(That's I like the letter I. or as in I want letters) :) 

LOVE YOU! 

Hermana Wilson's Last Week in the CCM

HOLLA Y´ALL! 

So this is a super random time to email, but they gave me a little time to email tonight because I leave the CCM at an inhumane hour on Monday morning! EEK! 

So just a couple of fun things from this week...

-We are singing Come Thou Fount in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow as a district IN SPANISH. what?

-Neil L. Andersen came to visit us today! He talked about applying and teaching the atonement and it was fantastic! All the missionaries here got to shake his hand. Legit, eh?

-Tomorrow I am playing the piano for our Sunday Devotional, so no big deal or anything, but I am playing in front of, you know, like 500 missionaries. Maybe I should have been a little more conservative about my abilities to play. AWKS. 

-My stuff is all packed up and ready to go to Virginia. WEIRD. 

-I got a Children´s songbook in Español and I´m stoked about it! 

Also, some of you may remember that I started a starburst wrapper chain to build while I´m gone, but then sacrificed it for a greater good. Pictures attached of the creation for my maestro favorito, Hermano Silva! He´s pretty much the best! And he´s sassy to top it all off! :) #districtteamwork 

(sorry the pictures are sideways, I can´t rotate them on these computers) 

LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Hermana Wilson 

Hermana Wilson and Leaving Mexico Soon!

Oh my gosh y´all. My time at the MTC is almost over!! I leave the CCM at liiiiike 3 a.m. on Monday. WHAT? I definitely don´t know enough Spanish to be venturing into the real world of being a missionary.  So stay tuned for the funny stories that will inevitably follow my departure from the safe haven of the MTC.  Because I´m sure there will be plenty of them!! 

Also, this email is going to be kind of short because I want to send pictures also. (Which I can only send like 2 at a time so sorry if you all get a billion emails from me) :)  A couple of highlights from the week. 

-As a district we´ve started to be one another´s investigators.  Hermana Hansen and I are paired up with Elders Olsen and Keyes (they´re our favorites). Anyway, we´ve had a couple of good lessons, but mostly we all just laugh at the stupid things we say in our broken Spanish.  It´s definitely an adventure. I can´t remember if I told you this is my last email, but their investigator names are Alejandro and Fernando (Fernando is Alejandro´s grandmother.  Yes, you read that right.)  In our lesson the other day we had been teaching them about the tree of life and Fernando goes "Tiene ver el Evangelio Arbol?" Translated means "Have you seen the Gospel Tree?" (AKA the tree of life). Anyway, the funny part is the fact that I said yes because clearly I like to answer questions in Spanish before I even know what is being asked.  So that was an adventure.  Also, Fernando told us that "she" didn´t want to get baptized because her skin shrivels up when she gets wet. 

-I spoke in church on Sunday about Teaching By the Spirit.  Everyone in the Branch told me that I did a great job. But I´m not sure how great it actually was because we´ve definitely been there the longest, which means that if the newbies are anything like I was when I first got here, they didn´t even understand any of it. So that was AWKS.

-One of the new girls in our Zone told me that she wanted to grow up to be just like me because apparently I have the coolest life. For the win! 

-We´ve been running every day. That´s a weird thing.  Never thought those words would come out of my mouth. But Lo and Behold, it is the truth I speaketh unto thee. 

-Hermana Hansen and I became investigators for Olsen and Keyes and that´s almost more fun than teaching them.  We are twins names Castidad (that´s me) and Francesca (that´s Hermana Hansen).  We´re 20 and we like to party.  She´s going to school to become a Dental Assistant and I am going to school to be a Marine Biologist.  She gets annoyed with me because I apparently like to flood our house to practice being in water all the time.  So that´s been a pretty fun adventure so far! The funniest part of that lesson was Keyes trying to teach about who the Spirit was.  Instead of telling us that He was part of the Godhead ("trinidad") he said "El Espíritu es parte de cabeza de Dios" (translated means "He is part of the head of God.") Good one, Keyes. 

-We watched an AMAZING devotional by Elder Holland and it made me so much more pumped to get to Virginia!! 

-Hermana Hansen and Hermana Turner are hilarious! I´m gonna miss them a lot when I don´t get to spend every minute of every day with them!

-Oh! And we got to go to the temple today! (well, the visitors´ center because the temple is closed) It is beautiful! and the visitors´ center there is honestly the most beautiful one I´ve ever been in! It was fantastic! I loved it! 

Let the picture sending begin :) 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Okay, that´s all I think.

Hermana Wilson and Scar Tissue

First off, let´s start with a word to the wise:

When you have sick scar tissue (like the kind from Mud Volleyball injuries), it is best not to play volleyball, dive for the ball, and split it open again. :) But, on the bright side, I have a companion that loves to doctor up the injured. I´m confident to say that I am in good hands! Thou shalt fret not. 

Second, can we take a moment to ponder on the phenomenon that I am only 3 days away from being a month done with my mission? As of this friday, I will be down to 17 months. And I leave the MTC in 13 days. what? Time is a weird thing. 

MTC life is weird, y´all.  Nothing much changes in my life from day to day.  I realized recently that I don´t talk in "I" anymore, it´s always "we".  Having a companion does weird things to one´s brain.  Also, Spanish is ruining my life.  I Spanglish everything soooo sorry. :)

The elders in our district are seriously the funniest! Our teachers have decided to change things up for us these last two weeks and we´ve now started teaching each other.  We make up investigator stories and then we alternate being the investigators and the missionaries.  This week Hermana Hansen and I are the missionaries so we teach like 8 lessons, but next week we´ll be the investigator so I think we only teach 2 lessons (to the investigators we´ve been teaching all along).  Yesterday we taught Elder Keyes and Elder Olsen.  Elder Keyes pretended to be a teenager that lived with his grandma that was interested in the church because his friends are members....so Olsen played the grandma.  It was hilarious and I´m really excited that we get to teach them because they´re our favorite companionship in the district. 

The longer I´m here, the more I notice my patience being tested. Especially when the boys stop acting like missionaries and start acting like 18-year-olds.  Then, it just makes me feel old, so that´s weird.... 

General Conference was amazing!!! I definitely wanna just soak it all up again and again! I hope everyone had a chance to watch it, and follow up on President Monson´s invitation to study them more! I personally love that Elder Bednar spoke specifically to nonmembers, that was excellent! 

Being a missionary has changed my life! I miss my friends and my family like you wouldn´t believe, but I wouldn´t change this experience for the world! This gospel changes people and when we act on the invitations from the scriptures and from our prophet and apostles we will naturally come closer to Christ, feel the love that he has for us, and want to share that love with everyone we come in contact with! The gospel is SO COOL.  Live it fully because it will bless you forever! 

I´m out of time, but I love you all! Peace out :)

-Hermana Wilson 

P.S. read Alma 17:13 :) scriptures are cool